Eleven44’s Historic Mural is Looking For a New Home

Club mural seeks new place to hangout.

Photo: Odeelo Dayondon

Interested in picking up one of Honolulu’s most iconic—and giant—pieces of modern art? The storied jungle-animal and plant mural in the recently closed eleven44 is up for sale.

It all started back in the 1940s, when artist Andy Huhn debuted a bas-relief sculpture of zebras to stand at the entrance of Honolulu’s former Zebra Room jazz club. Owner Cornelius Mulder quickly realized that the piece would completely eclipse the actual inside decorations of the club itself, and so Huhn proposed a larger mural five inches thick and almost 40 feet long, complete with plants, animals, and warriors fiercely locked in battle. When it was finished, the mural stood as the visual centerpiece for what was then one of Hawai‘i’s hottest nightlife destinations.

Nearly half a century later, during the demolition of the Zebra Room, another club owner acquired the massive art piece: Dave Stewart, owner of popular Chinatown hotspot Bar 35 and formerly Indigo and Brasserie Du Vin. At the recommendation of an architect friend, Stewart installed it in Indigo’s Green Room and Opium Den. When he opened bambuTwo, which later became eleven44, Stewart moved it there, where it adorned a side wall for more than two years.

With the recent closure of eleven44, the mural is going on the market for $20,000 and Stewart hopes to find a local buyer interested in owning a piece of Honolulu history. So if you’ve got either a commercial space or a large enough wall in your home, now’s the time to scoop up these animals before they go the way of the Zebra Room—and vanish forever.